To follow-up his outstanding debut feature The Eyes of My Mother (review), writer/director Nicolas Pesce has tackled another horror project, this time adapting a novel from Japanese author Ryû Murakami.

Piercing stars Christopher Abbott as a man who decides, for reasons that aren't fully clear from the trailer, that he needs to kill. He decides the way to satiate his need is to plan it down to the most minute detail, book a prostitute, and then do the deed except that the woman who arrives for his night of merciless killing, played by Mia Wasikowska, has her own plans for how the evening is going to play out.

The movie also stars Laia Costa who made a splash a few years ago with Victoria (trailer).

As a fan of this cast, particularly Abbott whose talent is underrated, and curious about Pesce's follow-up, I was already curious about the project but the trailer has sold me; it's brilliantly edited and the movie appears to feature a streak of dark comedy I definitely was not expecting.

Piercing has been playing the festival circuit since its debut at Sundance earlier this year and will continue to make the rounds until its eventual North American release on February 1, 2019.